Sunny Lam (born 1 June 1986; ) is a Hong Kong singer-songwriter and YouTuber. Lam is known for rewriting lyrics to the tune of existing well-known songs as satirical political commentary during the 2014 Hong Kong protests and the 2019–20 Hong Kong protests.
Lam first received attention when he wrote and sang satirical songs during the 2014 Hong Kong protests. He used to work in a marketing position but quit his job in March 2019 to start an independent recording studio. During the 2019–20 Hong Kong protests, Lam satirised the Hong Kong Police Force and supporters of the government by writing and performing additional rewritten songs. In addition to rewriting 50 existing songs by May 2020, he has written original songs about heartbreak, love, wage earners' state of mind, and brown sugar bubble tea. Lam publishes his music videos to YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, and LIHKG.
Early life and career
Lam was born on 1 June 1986. He is introverted and describes himself as having a bit of a Buddha-like mindset. When he was a youth, he learned how to play the piano, make music arrangements, and sing. He participated in singing competitions that he lost. After graduation, Lam sent a sample of his music to record companies and received some replies though ultimately his music was not used. For seven to eight years, while he was working at his full-time marketing job, he sent one or two samples per year of his music to record companies. Before the 2014 Hong Kong protests, he was apolitical and did not think much about societal matters. He wrote social movement songs during the 2014 protests. When he was nearly 30 years old, he resigned from his marketing job in March 2019 to set up an independent recording studio. He planned to find another job if he could not make a living with the independent studio. Lam's intent was to give a platform to amateur musicians who might not have the money to purchase a microphone worth tens of thousands. He would help them with recording and arranging songs to cultivate their interest in music. Lam did not plan to quit his job to become an online singer but transitioned to that career path after the 2019–20 Hong Kong protests began. Owing to the protests and the COVID-19 pandemic in Hong Kong, his recording studio had no business so he transformed it into his workplace to make songs.
Lam started a YouTube channel where he initially uploaded primarily original songs about the topics of love, going to work, and wage earners' state of mind. Those songs received several thousand views. To attract a wider audience, he began uploading his covers of others' songs in which he rewrote those songs' lyrics with a focus on social themes. The covers received tens of thousands of views. Lam's songs have received attention owing to social movements in Hong Kong. This has allowed his music videos to attract hundreds of thousands of views, which Radio Free Asia said is a larger number of views than many traditional popular singers get. He releases a song about every two weeks. Lam used to want to be a mainstream singer-songwriter but no longer has an interest because he said mainstream singers are controlled by record companies and are unable to speak freely without fear of losing work when doing so.
By May 2020, he had created over 50covers of songs for he rewrote the lyrics. Some of the songs he is able to rewrite within an hour, while others take several days. After writing a song, he spends two to three hours to record it in his studio, one to two hours to film a music video, and two to three hours to do the editing. Most of his YouTube videos do not have advertising revenue since he is singing other people's songs. He did not make much from money from his YouTube uploads which he considered to be a side job. He received income by servicing requests from people to arrange music including one from Apple Daily. Lam began uploading his songs to the music streaming service KKBox and sharing them on Facebook. Lam does YouTube live streams to sing to his fans. He started a Facebook page in 2010. By May 2020, he had almost 100,000 followers on Facebook and YouTube. The am730 columnist Fong Kit said that some people think that Lam is not a real singer since Lam has not released any discs, has not sent promotional recordings to radio stations, has not sung the theme songs for any TV series, and his performances are all on Facebook, YouTube, and LIHKG. Fong noted that Lam's output is higher than many professional singers, compared Lam to well-known singers who have sung rewritten songs, and argued that Lam should be considered a real singer.